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Lombok

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Lombok lŏmbŏk´ [key], island (1990 pop. 2,403,025), c.1,825 sq mi (4,725 sq km), E Indonesia, one of the Lesser Sundas, separated from Bali by the Strait of Lombok. Mataram, with the port of Ampenan nearby, is the chief town. The volcanic and mountainous terrain rises to 12,224 ft (3,726 m) at Mt. Rinjani (Rindjani); a caldera that is part of the Rinjani complex contains a lake and an active volcanic cone, Mt. Barujari. The caldera is the remnant of the collapse of Mt. Samalas, which may be the source of the massive volcanic eruption in 1257 that left traces in the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica and affected Europe's climate; the eruption was one of the largest in the last 10,000 years. Lombok's southern area is a fertile plain producing corn, rice, coffee, cotton, and tobacco. The island is inhabited mainly by Sasaks, Muslims of Malay descent; there are also Balinese and ethnic Chinese. First visited by the Dutch in 1674, Lombok became part of the Netherlands East Indies in 1894. The English naturalist A. R. Wallace noted that Lombok is on the line where the fauna of Asia and Australia meet. A state university is in Mataram.